Social media can be a huge source of traffic, but making it to the front page of a major site like Digg is difficult, and the traffic is not usually as targeted as many other forms of traffic. For these reasons niche social media sites are a great solution. While traffic volume may not be as high, it will be much more targeted and it’s more realistic that your submissions will be noticed.
If you are a web designer, there are a number of niche sites that you should be aware of. Here are five with a brief description of each.
1. DZone
DZone is a community of web developers and software developers, and it probably provides the most technical content of any of the sites listed here. As the largest community listed, DZone also has the potential to send more traffic than any of the others.
How it works:
- You create an account.
- Users can submit a link to an article that is development-related.
- Members can vote up or down for the articles.
- Anyone can subscribe to the RSS feed.
- Currently, there are over 9,000 subscribers to the feed of popular links.
- Currently, there are over 1,000 subscribers to the feed of new links.
A submitted link doesn’t need to get that many votes in order to be made popular, but votes don’t come easily. The content is highly targeted, and anything non-developer related will be shot down and probably deleted. If one of your links makes it to the front page (and gets sent out to the 9,000+ subscribers) you can easily receive 500 or more visitors in a day. The DZone community seems to include a large number of del.icio.us users as I have had several posts rack up bookmarks and make it to the front page of del.icio.us immediately following traffic from DZone.
2. CSS Globe
CSS Globe is not a typical social media site where members vote on submissions. It specializes in web standards and design-related content.
How it works:
- Members create an account (have to be approved).
- Members can submit links with brief descriptions.
- The links go out to CSS Globes RSS subscribers.
So essentially CSS Globe is more of a user-controlled blog than a social media website. But it sends links with descriptions rather than full blog posts. Links can receive as much as 200 or more visitors in a day from CSS Globe. Actually, this week I’ve had over 400 visitors in a day from CSS Globe. If you have quality design-related content and a good headline, CSS Globe is easy traffic.
3. Pixel Groovy
Pixel Groovy is a user-controlled tutorial directory. Topics include CSS, PHP, JavaScript, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, and more.
How it works:
- Members create an account.
- Members submit links to tutorials/articles.
- Submissions are voted up and down by users.
Pixel Groovy’s RSS feed currently has over 1200 subscribers. I’m not sure how much traffic it sends to top stories because I have not used it very much.
4. Design Float
Design Float is a Digg-Style social media site that focuses on design related content, as opposed to Digg’s general approach.
How it works:
- Members create accounts.
- Members can submit links and vote (actually “float”) on other submissions.
- Much like Digg, users can add friends.
- Top stories are posted on the front page.
I’ve submitted to articles to Design Float and been pleasantly surprised with the results (100 - 200 visitors to each). It appears to be an up-and-coming community for designers.
5. DevelopersNiche
Like Design Float, DevelopersNiche is a Digg-style site, with a niche focus. It works exactly the same as Design Float, so I won’t re-write that information. DevelopersNiche is the smallest community of the sites listed here and will send the least amount of traffic. However, that means it is easier to get your submissions to the front page and get a little bit of exposure.
If you know of any other social media sites in this niche please leave a link in the comments.
EDIT: You can add Design Bump and Design Related to this list.
50 comments from readers
1 Lee Oct 11, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Great list!
Thanks
2 Vandelay Design Oct 11, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Lee,
Thanks for visiting. I’m glad you liked the list.
3 Karen Zara Oct 12, 2007 at 12:38 am
It’s a pity I’m not a designer.
Otherwise I’d be putting this list to use right now. If only I had the time to study and learn all this web design thing…
4 Karthik Oct 12, 2007 at 1:04 am
Steven, that reminds me, I’d done some looking around to find out if there were any SNWs in my “niche” - I didn’t have a lot of luck though, would you know any places to look at offhand?
5 Tay Oct 12, 2007 at 5:23 am
Thank you! This is very helpful.
6 Felix Ker Oct 12, 2007 at 10:52 am
Pretty useful site to discover new pages/sites!
7 Tim Wall Oct 12, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Thanks for this list. As marketing director for a web company I am always on the lookout for more sites like these. I had not heard of all of these so thanks for bringing them out.
8 Vandelay Design Oct 12, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Karthik,
I’ve found a few from time to time by visiting forums. Find some forums in your niche, do a search of past posts and leave a new one if you don’t find anything. Talking to other people in the niche is a good way since they are most likely to know. You could email other bloggers maybe.
Tay, Felix, and Tim,
I’m glad this list will be helpful to you all.
9 Sell Website Oct 12, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Pretty good list there. I’m definitely forwarding your site to my friend, he could really use this info. Awesome.
10 jaux Oct 13, 2007 at 1:39 am
Nice list.
I found myself visited DZone much more than Digg after I fist met it. It makes more sense to me, as a CS student, than Digg.
People don’t like to comment on it, though. Maybe because developers prefer coding and reading to speaking
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12 Web 2.0 Announcer Oct 13, 2007 at 3:42 am
5 Niche Social Media Sites for Web Designers…
[…]5 sites that specialize in web design related news. These are actual niche sites, not categories of larger sites like Digg and Reddit. Dzone is included.[…]…
13 Vandelay Design Oct 13, 2007 at 8:15 am
Jaux,
Thanks for visiting and reading. Yes, I like the targeted traffic from Dzone. You’re right, it doesn’t seem to generate comments though.
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15 goyin Oct 14, 2007 at 1:53 pm
I like the photoshop tutorials from pixelgroovy. Each mini tutorial is like a new little nugget to have under my belt.
16 Frank C Oct 14, 2007 at 2:46 pm
DZone is great for bringing in software development traffic. On my .NET related blog I’ve had days where I’ve gotten over 1000 views from DZone. General or controversial topics bring the most traffic while nuts-and-bolts articles will provide less traffic although it will be more sticky.
DotNetKicks is a great social media site for .NET developers. While it doesn’t get the traffic of DZone it’s audience is highly targeted on development with Microsoft products.
17 Vandelay Design Oct 14, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Frank,
Thanks for mentioning DotNetKicks. I’m compiling a list of social networks, so I’ll be sure to add that one.
18 Christine OKelly Oct 14, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Great post ~
I just got a link on a health social media site called http://v.mercola.com/blogs/ and it generated about 1000 visits to my site and currently has 1746 hits to post on Mercola. There’s no way to add your post to the site, but emailing Dr. Mercola - the site owner with a related post may result in a placement!
19 Vandelay Design Oct 14, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Hi Christine,
Thanks for clicking through on my comment at your blog. I’m glad to hear that a niche site has brought some targeted traffic to you. I’ll have to add that site to a list I’m compiling.
20 Acopic - Web Designers Oct 15, 2007 at 4:44 am
Hey. Thanks for that. CSS Globe looks cool.
21 Rick Oct 15, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Although it is watered down with amateur art and anime. I think Deviantart.com is still a great source for feedback on projects and also finding inspiration…
22 Vandelay Design Oct 15, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Acopic,
I really like CSS Globe, try it out sometime.
Rick,
That’s true. I haven’t really used it, by I’ve heard others say the same thing. Thanks for the feedback.
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24 Cole Haan Oct 16, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Out of these 5 I am use Dzone for a while, and it so have nice amount of traffic to send your way. I will also try your other recommendations, Thanks!
25 5 Niche Social Media Sites for Web Designers Oct 17, 2007 at 1:47 pm
[…] 5 sites that specialize in web design related news. These are actual niche sites, not categories of larger sites like Digg and Reddit. Worth a look! :o) Click here to visit >> […]
26 Jenny Oct 17, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Awesome list. I’m off to look at all the sites.
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28 Building On Your Success Oct 26, 2007 at 6:57 am
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29 Randy Roedl On Wordpress Blogs Oct 30, 2007 at 12:07 pm
[…] get social media traffic. For example, my posts that are web design related sometimes do well with niche social media sites, while posts that are related to blogging don’t get submitted to these sites since they aren’t […]
30 Anna Vester Nov 5, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Great Links, thanks for those. I have never heard of DevelopersNiche website, it looks like it will be a very interesting one. Thanks again!
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32 24h Blog » Blog Archive » Building On Your Success Nov 13, 2007 at 9:38 pm
[…] get social media traffic. For example, my posts that are web design related sometimes do well with niche social media sites, while posts that are related to blogging don’t get submitted to these sites since they […]
33 Ah my goddess Nov 20, 2007 at 10:57 am
Thanks for the links, I was using DZone before but I like the other sites too, especially Pixel Groovy.
34 Vandelay Design Nov 20, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Yeah, DZone is probably the most well know on the list. Pixel Groovy is nice because there’s also some graphic design content as well.
35 Rachel Goldstein Dec 18, 2007 at 10:55 am
Great list. I just launched a Digg-like site for designers called Design Sites Up. My favorite on this list above is Design Float, I’m on there every day.
Thanks.
Rachel
36 matt Dec 29, 2007 at 12:56 am
Don’t forget about design:related™
37 Herrmann Jan 2, 2008 at 1:56 pm
perfect to notify !
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39 idesigner Jan 3, 2008 at 7:16 pm
styleignite.com is also worth a look
40 TheDogsBloggers.info Mar 3, 2008 at 6:24 am
Some Top tools will be sure to check out. Many Thanks
41 peri oyunları Mar 9, 2008 at 12:27 am
designrelated looks cool
42 enfopedia Mar 16, 2008 at 11:01 am
thanks for the article, i use dzone as well and i love it.
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49 Erwin Jun 16, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Very helpful. Thx.
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